{"id":250146,"date":"2025-07-09T07:22:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-09T07:22:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/250146\/"},"modified":"2025-07-09T07:22:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-09T07:22:12","slug":"zwift-pulls-the-plug-on-elite-racing-series-amid-viewership-struggles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/250146\/","title":{"rendered":"Zwift pulls the plug on elite racing series amid viewership struggles"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Zwift<\/p>\n

News & Racing<\/a><\/p>\n

The Zwift World Series 2025\/26 elite season has been cancelled. The Elite Zwift Games 26 are still on the table, but their status is in doubt.<\/p>\n

\"Chris<\/p>\n

In a July 3 email seen by Escape Collective, Zwift director of racing Sean Parry informed racers that Zwift will not be hosting an Elite Zwift World Series (ZWS) this fall.<\/p>\n

“For many years Zwift has invested substantially in broadcast production, broadcast distribution partnerships (e.g. GCN), prize money, performance verification, and independent governance for elite-level regular season racing events like Zwift World Series,” Parry wrote. “Regrettably, the current level of audience interest and viewership for these events makes continuing to support this investment unsustainable.” <\/p>\n

Based on the previous calendar, the next major franchise event would be the Zwift Games; however, Zwift is non-committal on its status at this time.<\/p>\n

In response to Parry’s email, the prevailing sentiment in the Zwift racing community was one of regret and sadness, but it didn’t blindside anyone, says Josh Harris, Australian cycling esports champion and 2024 UCI Cycling Esports World Championship top-10 finisher.<\/p>\n

“I’m not surprised the ZWS wasn’t a hit with the fans,” remarked Harris. “It was hardly a hit for the racers. However, the decision to part ways with their elite racing series is truly disappointing and will undoubtedly have some implications for the sport. I love Zwift, so this will change the platform’s purpose for me. Taking Zwift seriously might have stopped yesterday.”<\/p>\n

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\n News & Racing<\/a>
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\n MyWhoosh<\/a>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"News & Racing The Zwift World Series 2025\/26 elite season has been cancelled. The Elite Zwift Games 26…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":250147,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4104],"tags":[4230,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-250146","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114822076581853348","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}